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#DeploymentDelays - Tensions between a Naval Service patrol ship and the Italian coastguard writes The Irish Times, have emerged during a trial of three Libyan men accused of people trafficking in the Mediterranean.

The exchanges have led to a call for “clarity” from Government for future Irish rescue missions.

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) Ireland called on the Minister for Defence to “provide the Naval Service with the operational clarity it needs to carry out rescue missions swiftly and without hesitation”.

The Naval Service has so far saved 15,621 lives since deployment of ships to the Mediterranean in May 2015 under a bilateral arrangement with Italy.

As previously reported on Afloat, LÉ Eithne was ready to return to the Mediterranean on May 1st this year, is awaiting Government approval to sail south.

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Published in Navy

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago